Something About Decaffeinated Coffee
Something About Decaffeinated Coffee Many coffee shops have Decaf on their menus, which is a very friendly choice for people who want to drink coffee but need to control their caffeine intake. In general, the caffeine content of ordinary coffee beans is 1% - 2% for Arabica beans and 2% - 4.5% for Robusta beans. Common low factor coffee beans on the market can be divided into two categories: artificial low factor coffee beans and natural low factor coffee beans. Low risk coffee with artificial factor reduction treatment:
  • EU standard: caffeine content shall not exceed 0.1% of raw beans;
  • American FDA standard: Caffeine is less than 3% of the original content.
Artificial cause reduction is to reduce caffeine through food science and technology. Now there are three main treatment methods.
To avoid overconsumption of caffeine, in addition to decaffeinated coffee, there is a free and easy-to-use online caffeine calculator: https://roastercoffees.com/caffeine-calculator/
1. Swiss Water Process (SWP) uses the principle of infiltration and diffusion to reduce the factors through physical replacement. Specific steps:
  • Soak a portion of raw coffee beans in hot water until the water is saturated to obtain a portion of saturated coffee solution (GCE).
  • Then use activated carbon or filter membrane to absorb the caffeine from the saturated coffee solution. The remaining solution is used to soak the next batch of raw coffee beans. According to the principle of substance dissolution balance, each batch of newborn beans will only dissolve caffeine during the soaking process, while other major flavor substances will be retained.
  • Suck the caffeine from the solution again, and then soak the new batch of raw beans, so as to repeat the cycle.
  • Although a small part of the flavor will still be lost in the soaking process, the Swiss water treatment method has become the most popular factor reduction method at this stage due to its easy operation and no chemical addition, with a factor removal rate of 99.9%.

2. Carbon dioxide supercritical treatment (CO2 Process) Specific steps:
  • Coffee beans swell in water, making caffeine molecules loose in the beans.
  • CO2 is pressurized and liquefied to a critical state. The density of carbon dioxide in the critical state is close to that in the liquid state, while retaining the viscosity in the gaseous state. In this state, caffeine will permeate and move faster.
  • Use critical carbon dioxide to extract caffeine from raw beans.
Carbon dioxide is highly selective and will not capture the main flavor substances such as carbohydrate and protein in coffee beans. At the same time, carbon dioxide is an inactive gas, without ignition, chemical reactivity and residue. Therefore, this method has a high efficiency in reducing factors, and has been widely used in practice. This method is also used in reducing factors of tea.
If you want to roast your beans to your liking, you can use the coffee roast levels chart to roast your own beans: https://roastercoffees.com/home-coffee-roasting/
3. Solvent treatment. This method is popular in Europe, so it is also called European Process. It includes direct solvent treatment and indirect solvent treatment. Direct solvent treatment:
  • Open the pores of raw coffee beans with steam;
  • The solvent is directly added into the coffee beans to fuse with the caffeine;
  • The solvent dissolved in caffeine is then carried out by steam.

Indirect solvent treatment:
  • Soak the raw coffee beans in hot water to dissolve as much flavor as possible;
  • Separating the raw coffee beans from the hot water solution;
  • Adding a solvent capable of extracting caffeine into the solution to remove the caffeine;
  • The decaffeinated solution is combined with the raw coffee beans again to guide the flavor and aroma back to the coffee beans.
The chemical reagents used are usually dichloromethane and ethyl acetate, which will leave some chemical substances and have some impact on the taste. Natural decaffeinated coffee No matter what kind of artificial method, the flavor and aroma of coffee beans will be lost. In nature, there is also a kind of natural low calorie coffee beans.

The difference between a macchiato and decaf coffee lies in their caffeine content and preparation. A macchiato is an espresso-based drink, featuring a single shot of espresso "stained" with a small amount of milk, offering a bold and concentrated coffee flavor. In contrast, decaf coffee is regular coffee that has undergone a process to remove most of its caffeine, typically containing around 2-5 milligrams of caffeine per 8-ounce cup. The primary distinction is that a macchiato contains caffeine due to the espresso base, while decaf coffee offers a milder coffee experience with significantly reduced caffeine, making it a choice for those seeking to limit their caffeine intake.
Bourbon Pointu Found on Bourbon Island by the French in 1810, it is a drought resistant mutant of Bourbon. The bean shape is long and narrow, with sharp ends. It is named after its shape. Botanists have found that the sharp body bourbon is due to gene mutation and lack of the enzyme needed to synthesize caffeine, resulting in a lower caffeine content than that of ordinary bourbon species, which is about 0.6%. Another major feature of the sharp body bourbon is the elegant flavor spectrum:
  • Delicate blueberry fruit and vanilla aromas;
  • Bright acid;
  • And silky smooth fragrance.
At the same time, the sharp wave side trees are weak and vulnerable to disease interference, so the production capacity is low, the output is scarce, and the price is naturally high. With this knowledge, if you need to buy low calorie coffee products in the future, you can also choose more purposefully.